Central Asia Institute

In Pakistan and Afghanistan there are many children living poverty. Luckily, there is an Institute named Central Asia Institute whom helps promote education in areas such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. The number of children that go uneducated in the areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan were immensely high since most children were not pushed to have an education. 

The Central Asia Institute (CAI) is a non profit organization, founded by Greg Mortenson and Jean Hoerni. Mortenson and Hoernis’ mission is to promote and give a community-based education and literacy programs, mainly for girls, in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Through the years, the CAI has been able to establish 131 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. With these 131 schools, they gave an education to more than 58,000 students, which 44,000 were females.

CAI offers women centers, schools, clean drinking water, scholarships for students that pays for their studies, many intensive teacher workshops, and also they provided the first health care worker in the area of Zuudkhaan.

The schools sessions is usually from 240 to 260 days a year, with students in class five to six days a week. Every CAI school complies with that country's curriculum guidelines. Classes include Math, English, Pakistan studies-history, Urdu, Islamic studies, and science. CAI added hygiene and nutrition and developed a workbook that covers local culture, tradition, and folklore.

CAI main focus is helping and promoting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They help by building school buildings for places in Pakistan and Afghanistan that are not too popular. Once they finish their project they keep in touch with the village and give support to the school until the school can be on its own feet. CAI also offers scholarships for elementary, middle, high school and for a college education. The students must just apply to be considered. Since their is a huge rate of infant mortality rate they established the case study of Aziza, which is the first health care worker in the area. The water in Pakistan is very contaminated so CAI provided cleaning drinking water and sanitation for the communities to have a healthier community. CAI also provides a Women Center where women can gather and have meetings to discuss problems and there they can also sew and make products to sell in the village. With these women centers the women have a way to support their families.

Their website for the CAI is www.ikat.com. Why Ikat? Ikat is a silk fabric woven throughout Central Asia. Each strand is individually dyed, then woven into stunning, vibrant patterns which are recognized from village to village. Ikat symbolizes the strength, beauty, and resilience of the Central Asia communities that CAI serves.

Many people feel the need to help the organizations such as CAI, luckily there are many means to do so. One of the three few ways is by fundraising either by hosting craft sales, rummage sales, or doing something creative to obtain money for the CAI cause. Another method to help the CAI cause is by the Pennies for Peace. The Pennies for peace is an organization that uses our everyday useless penny and making the most of it around the globe. To donate to the Pennies for Peace you take all your pennies to a bank, have them counted, write a check to Pennies for Peace and send it thru the mail to Pennies for Peace, P.O. Box 7209, Bozeman, MT 59771, or you can donate via credit card on the Central Asia Institute Website, under gift allocation, and selecting Pennies for Peace as the program you want to donate to. These are just two of the few methods to be able to help these organizations, there are much more that might fit the category you wish to help.

Many people around the world need a little bit of help to be a better person. Luckily, all over the world there are organizations that offer many means to be better and to help them with that little “extra push” they need.